Galileo Eight
by Wishing For Rainy Days
Summary: Jadzia convinces Sisko to let her investigate some unusual neutrino emissions near the badlands. When it turns out to be a second wormwhole it becomes clear that they must investigate. But what's waiting on the other side?


_**DISCLAIMER:** The ideas and words are mine, the characters are not... But we do spend a lot of time together..._

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><p><em><strong>Galileo Eight<strong>_

"Benjamin, we are picking up some unusual neutrino emissions at starboard." Jadzia reported, without taking her eyes away from her console. Sisko had just walked into the bridge. He had barely reached his chair, had definitely not had the time to sit down, and already his young science officer brought something up that required his attention, perhaps even a command decision. She did that every time. It was uncanny! Whenever there were no Jem Hadar or Cardasians around, whenever it seemed as though they would get a break, Jadzia came up with something for the Defiant to do. He wondered why, he was sure he never did that to Curzon! He would at least have allowed the man to have a raktajino before making him stand from his seat.

Jadzia could hear the captain's chair squeaking as Benjamin stood behind it, his right hand on the back rest, making it spin. He sighed and smiled reluctantly.

"I had not even sqt down yet, old man!"He said, and Jadzia spinned on her chair, looking at him with a girlish smile.

"I think you're gonna find this interesting."She said, standing up from the helm and typing commands on the console of the small – and at the moment unmanned – science station on the Defiant's bridge. As she filtered the information from the starboard sensors, Dax could hear Benjamin's footsteps approaching behind her. Soon the data about the neutrino emissions was displayed on the screen at the upper right corner of the science station, and Benjamin stood behind Jadzia, his hand on the back of her chair, his eyes screening the numbers on the station as he analysed the information. Dax didn't turn to face him. Instead, she continued to feed the screen with continuous data from the starboard sensors.

"Could this be a cloacked vessel?" Benjamin asked, and there was a very slight touch of concern in his deep voice.

"That's unlikely," Jadzia answered promptly, bitting her lower lip. A few keystrokes later, a tridimensional diagram of the pattern of the neutrino emissions appeared next to the table of numbers she'd been feeding before. "The emissions are too strong, too widespread, see?" She asked, pointing out the spiral pattern on the graphic. There was an obvious correlation between the intensity of the color in the monitor and the intensity of the emissions themselves. "Any emission of this magnitude would defeat the purpose of a cloak."Jadzia added.

The captain nodded, silently agreeing with his science officer, and Jadzia watched the gesture on the black reflective surface of her console. She had an idea of what those emissions might be, and the continuous stream of data reaching her console confirmed that hypothesis, to a degree, It was merelly a matter of convincing Benjamin to let them investigate now.

"Benjamin," she started, turning to face the commanding officer, "this is an uncharted region of space. And we are close to the badlands. Not to mention the cardassian border... It might be worth taking a closer look..." She suggested, a cunning smile on the corner of her lips. The tone of her voice could barely disguise how much she wanted to get to the bottom of that though.

Benjamin looked at her and their eyes met. Because the Defiant was a battle ship there was no need of a science officer at the bridge at all times, but he did need Dax on the bridge, so she took the helm. Torias had been a pilot after all, and Jadzia was more than qualified. But she was a scientist at heart, and Benjamin was not oblivious to how excited she got to be able to get away from the helm for a while and take that science station. It amused to think of Curzon at times like this. The old man had very little use for scientists, he would probably roll his eyes to the ceiling at the mere thought that Jadzia could demonstrate such interest in a table of numbers. At times like that, her youth was evident, and although he had never told her that, she reminded Benjamin of Doctor Bashir (In fact, Benjamin could bet the young doctor was stretching his neck behing them, trying to get a peak at the readings, excited himself about the perspective of a scientific breakthrough). But he understood her desire to explore, to be part of some exciting new scietific discovery. That was why they joined Starfleet to begin with and although it was tiresome at times it was nice to have an impromptu side mission like that, to remind them that there was more to life than the war that was exhausting them all. Which was why, in spite of the fact that he didn't always understand what was so exciting about discovering a new species of fungi in some far away world, Benjamin usually caved to her wishes.

"You do realize we're just supposed to be passing by?" Benjamin asked, slightly exhasperated. But he was smiling, and at the sight of that smile, Jadzia knew she had won.

"We are passing by!" She insisted, and then, trying to be cute she added: "But there's nothing wrong with passing by a little slowly, right?"

"Very well," Banjamin caved, nodding and turning back to the main viewer, his hand still at the back of the science officer's chair. "Get back to the helm and diverge course to the focal point of the neutrino emissions, impulse power, 500 kph." Jadzia had a big smile as she went back to the helm and plotted a course. She didn't even notice Chief O'Brien's haw of annoyance as she walked by his station. The chief didn't have much use for scientists either. Specially when they kept keeping the ship from getting back to the station after their mission was completed.

"I want a report on the nature of these emissions in thirty minutes, Dax." The Captain said, walking towards his ready room. "Bring the senior staff to a briefing in the war room. Mr. Worf, you have the bridge."

"Where are you going, Benjamin?" Jadzia asked loudly.

"To my ready room, where I can at least sit on my chair, old man!" Benjamin answered, a humorous tone on his voice. "Unless you found some other interesting emissions, already?"

"No." Jadzia answered with a smile. "But I did programmed that recipe of Raktajino we found on Kronos once in your replicator. You might wanna try that."

"Thanks, old man." Benjamin thanked with a big smile. He remembered his trip to Kronos with Curzon only too well. "I will see you in half an hour."

"Aye aye, sir," Jadzia answered, turning her attention back to her console.

Thirty two minutes later Jadzia walked in the observation room, ready to conduct the briefing. All the officers were already there, laughing at some silly story that Julian had been telling them. The medical officer was sitting on the table, gesturing flamboyantly with his hands, and Benjamin, Kira and Miles's chairs were around him, as they listened to his story. Even Odo was laughing and shaking his head, as if he could have predicted the ending before Julian had even started it. The security officer was standing with his arms crossed next to Kira's chair, leaning against one of the vertical windows. Worf was the last one to come in, just after Jadzia, and she had a feeling he had been waiting for her, just so he wouldn't have to fraternize with the others before the briefing started. In fact, as soon as he walked in, the tactical officer took his usual seat at the table, stubbornly ignoring his colleagues laughter.

"Ah! Old man, mr. Worf..." The captain started, rolling his chair back to his place at the head of the table. " I guess we can start." He said, and the others, some of them still laughing, took their places around the table and looked at Jadzia. "So, is there anything interesting about these neutrino emissions you made us stop to observe?"the captain provoked Dax.

"As it turns out, there is!" Jadzia said, giving Benjaming a piercing look after his provocation. With the touch of a button she projected the same tridimensional she had shown the captain earlier on the bridge. "I started formulating my hypothesis when I noticed the spiral pattern of the emissions." She explaining, pointing out the pattern on the screen. The neutrino particles were bright purple. "At first the emission pattern appears random, but once we got closer and I increased the resolution of our sensors..."She explained, and before she could finish her sentence the particles on the screen rearranged and the spiral assumed a configuration that every officer on Deep Space 9 knew only too well.

"That's a wormwhole!" Kira exclaimed, before she could restrain herself.

"That's what I assumed at first, yes." Jadzia said, smiling. "The neutrinos rearrange whenever something comes through the wormwhole and that makes its shape more evident. Now we are close enough to pick up images of the wormwhole as it opens." She said, and then she replaced the tridimensional reconstructions with images from the Defiant's forward sensors. An image very much simmilar to the image of the Bajoran wormwhole that could be seen from the windows at the promenade of the station appeared. The officers watched the screen as the wormwhole opened and closed again.

"What's coming through?"Chief O'brien asked, curiously.

"Space rocks, for now. Small asteroids. Debris." Jadzia answered, "I have conducted further analysis of those rocks, and it would appear that they are coming from the farthest corner of the gamma quadrant. It's possible that the other end of the wormhole is in that quadrant, just likem the other end of our worwhole. But there's no way to know that for sure from here."

"How did our sensors missed that at first?"Benjamin asked, intrigued, looking at Dax. It was not difficult to understand what prompted this question. A wormwhole should not surprise them, in a way, there was one just out of their doorstep!

"The energy signature of this wormwhole is very different from the energy signature of ours."Jadzia said, and as she touched the screen, some numbers appeared next to the image. Julian leaned forward, interested. "It is definitely artificial, and although I can not begin to explain how it was built, whoever built it used a completely different technique than our wormwhole aliens."

"In other words," Odo started, and all the heads in the room turned to him, "this wormwholes were not built by the Prophets."

"That makes sense."Kira interjected. "There's only one celestial temple."

"The important question is: who built it?" Worf spoke for the first time, and there was a sudden change in the atmosphere of the room. Suddenly, everything became more tense, and the seriousness that's only familiar to people who are in the middle of a war dominated the room.

"Captain, we are awfully close to the Cardassian border..." Mile started.

"The Cardassians could not have built this." Julian pointed out. "No one in the alpha quadrant could."

"I agree with Julian." Jadzia said. "Whoever build this, did it from the other side."

"Do you have any information about when it was built?" Odo asked.

"The Quantum signature is very recent." Jadzia answered. "This wormwhole could not have been around for more than a few weeks."

"Captain, it is possible that the founders are trying to build another door to the gamma quadrant. If they had a wormwhole here it would be much easier for them to bring reinforcements into our side of the Galaxy."

"What makes you think that the founders have the technology to create a wormwhole?" Kira asked, very skeptical.

"Nothing. But I would not put it past my people to use that strategy."Odo pointed out.

"Well, even then , this area is awfully quiet."Chief O'brien said. "There's no Cardasian ships around, no Maquis... You'd think they would be here if there were Jem'Hadar vessels popping out of space. "

"It may have nothing to do with the Dominium." Jadzia said, looking at the captain. "We were the one's to discover the first wormwhole. It is possible that no one on the Dominium even knows about this one."

"Nevertheless, we have to investigate." Captain Sisko said. "Well, old man, it seems you got your wish. I want you to take a shuttle pod and command an away team to the other side."

"I would like to go as well, captain."Doctor Bashir volunteered, eagerly.

"Me too, captain." Mr. Worf followed. He seemed annoyed at the Doctor's eagerness to volunteer, and Sisko thought he understood why.

"We are on the fringes of the DMZ, Mr. Worf, I need my tactical officer on board the Defiant." Sisko said. His tone was final, discouraging protests from mr. Worf, and the Klingon officer picked up on that. He knew that a tactical officer could be useful on the other side, if the Jem'Hadar were involved, but the possibilities of that happening were remote. Jadzia had already sent a probe through and the probe didn;t pick up anything. Besides. Benjamin wanted Jadzia to command this mission, and Worf was her senior officer. If he went along, he would command. He had to stay. "But this is a science mission, so the doctor should join you." Benjamin continued. "I would also like you to take the constable."He said, looking at Odo. "Just in case there's something on the other side that has anything to do with the Dominium, I can think of anyone better to assess the danger to the security of our quadrant."

Odo simply nodded.

"Of course." The security officer said.

"The rest of the team is up to you, old man, be ready to leave in fifteen minutes."

"Thank you, Benjamin."

"Oh, don't thank me yet!" He cautioned his science officer. "This is supposed to be a quick survey, Dax. I want you to take the shuttle through the wormwhole, take some readings and come back. I don't want you to wander far away from the other end of the wormwhole, let alone take any "small detours" to explore nearby planets. Even if that planet has the most unusual fungi your sensors have ever picked up, do you understand me, old man."

"Yes." She said with a mischievous smile. "We be back in a minute."  
>"You better be." Benjamin said firmly, with a smile. "You're dismissed. The rest of us, back to the bridge."He ordered, and Kira, Worf and Chief O'Brien followed him out of the war room. Worf looked back at the doctor before the door closed. He was not pleased.<p>

"So-"Julian said, a big smile on his face. "Are we about to discover a second stable wormwhole?"he asked excited, standing up and walking next to Jadzia.

"Maybe." She answered. "But while we walk to the shuttle bay, why don;t you tell me the story you were all laughing at when I first walked in?"

"Ha!"Odo laughed, the sound coming from his throat as it usually did. "Yes, doctor, why don't you tell her?"

Julian seemed embarassed. Jadzia laughed looking from Odo to the Chief medical officer intrigued as the tree of them walked out of the war room.

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><p><em><strong>Author's note:<strong> This is an adaptation of a story I made up for my character's OTC on a Star Trek RPG, Shadow Fleet. There are more chapters to come. I'm looking for a beta reader by the way, so if you're interested, drop me a line. This story is set before the events of Children of time. I think after that it would have taken Jadzia a while to eagerly suggest an exploratory detour again..._

_LLAP_


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